Home›News and views›Strategy beyond the template
Strategy beyond the template
The best strategy for your business is the one that fits your reality — not the one that fits a slide deck.
Many businesses buy a strategy and never use it, because the strategy was built from a template: a mission statement, a SWOT grid, five generic goals. It looks professional and changes nothing.
A strategy that works answers three questions specific to you. Where do you actually compete? Not the industry you wish you were in, but the customers, products and geographies that pay your bills today. What do you win on? Your honest advantage — the reason a customer chooses you over the alternative. What are you going to stop doing? Every strategy is also a set of refusals; without them, it is just a to-do list.
The discipline we bring to our own consultancy is the same: keep the strategy proportionate to the business, grounded in the numbers, and short enough to be remembered. A strategy no one can recall is a strategy no one can follow.